Nik Silver, director of professional services with Web agency Hyperlink, says, “The Intel platform can be very quick to develop on, because of the tools and because it can be easier to integrate your Web applications with databases and applications you already have, especially ones developed using Microsoft tools. Unix boxes may be less user-friendly, but they offer advantages in terms of scalability and supplier independence.”

Scalability

As Silver adds. that’s not to say you can’t achieve scalability on Intel platforms: Microsoft’s own Website demonstrates that But it may be more demanding technically.